Summoning a ride from Uber is as simple as opening the company’s mobile app. Now you won’t even have to do that.

Uber has partnered with nearly a dozen companies, including OpenTable, Starbucks and United Airlines, to let users order rides from directly within several popular apps, the company said in a blog post Wednesday.

After booking a dinner reservation on OpenTable, for example, users may arrange for transportation to the restaurant without ever leaving OpenTable’s app.

The ride-sharing company also released a set of software code called an application programming interface, or API, that will let any developer incorporate Uber’s service into their own apps.

The tools will let apps connect with Uber and perform tasks like estimating the cost of fares and displaying pickup times. But most of these apps won’t let users request cars directly, at least initially. They must go to the Uber app for that. Uber says it is releasing that feature “in a more controlled fashion” with some of its partners.

Uber is following in the tradition of Internet giants who have extended their reach to new users and opened new revenue streams by sharing their software code with a vast ecosystem of sites and apps. Amazon’s affiliate program rewards developers with a small cut of any sales they refer to the e-commerce site. Facebook made its “Like” button available to outside sites in 2010, giving the social network a way to collect data on its members as they moved about the Web.

At the outset, Uber hopes its new app partners will drum up new demand for rides in the cities where it operates. The 11 mobile apps it partnered with today – which also include Expensify, Hinge, Hyatt Hotel and Resorts, Momento, Time Out, Tempo Smart Calendar, TripCase and TripAdvisor – together represent hundreds of millions of users, many of whom may not be familiar with Uber’s service.

The extra demand could test Uber’s network of drivers, which is frequently bogged down by too many requests coming in at periods of high demand. In these periods, Uber offers drivers extra incentive to get on the road by charging passengers “surge prices” – a practice that has irked some passengers who pay twice the price of a normal fare or more.

But a surge in users from dozens of apps is also likely to lure more drivers to sign up for Uber, Emil Michael, senior vice president of business, said in an interview.

“The more demand I have, the more drivers want to drive for me because they’re making more money per hour,” Michaels said.

Uber is also enticing some app makers to add its software code with cash. Uber agreed to pay travel reviews site TripAdvisor fees for referring users to the car service, said Adam Medros, TripAdvisor’s senior vice president of global product, in an interview.

“We do have a financial commission structure built out with Uber on this,” Medros said. “There are economics that are attractive to us.”

A spokeswoman for Uber said different financial arrangements are being made with different partners. TripAdvisor and Uber declined to provide details on the amount Uber plans to pay for referrals.

Smaller developers who sign up for Uber’s API can enroll into an affiliate program, which will pay them only with free credits to use on Uber rides.

Eventually, Michaels hopes Uber can attract an array of software developers to write interesting new applications, and perhaps even build new businesses, using its code.

“We’re hoping that by opening our platform up we’re going to have some big winners,” he said.

The announcement marks one more potential competitive advantage for Uber as it tries to outmuscle Lyft, its smaller ridesharing rival. The two companies have copied one another’s innovations, undercut prices and accused each other of engaging in underhanded tactics.

A Lyft spokeswoman said the company has no plans to share about an API at this time.